Birkenhead Park RFC

Sat 29 Oct 2022

Douglas (I.O.M.)

13 - 18

(HT 6-13)

Birkenhead Park

Douglas (I.O.M.)

Birkenhead Park

It is always a difficult trip away to Douglas and this was to prove no different. An early flight from Liverpool with a 6am meet at the meant the team were on the road early. The weather was not good on leaving Liverpool and it did not improve during the flight. Pete Doolan was making his 200^th appearance for the club having reached that milestone playing across the front row, an excellent servant to the club. The pitch was heavy from the recent rain and with a strong wind blowing to the bottom right hand corner with driving rain it was certainly going to be a weather affected game. Park attacked with the wind behind them and were able to spend time within the Douglas 22 but unable to come up with any points. In fact it was some 20 minutes into the game before the first points were scored and this was by Douglas. With a lineout for Douglas just outside the Park 22 and then driven forward Park were caught offside and the Douglas 10 gladly took the opportunity to take the lead, 3-0. Park came back into it and forced a knock on from Douglas just on their 10m line. When the ball was moved into the midfield centre Davies made headway and the defence was penalised for not rolling away. Hall stepped up to slot the equalising score. Park were having more possession now but both sides were making errors in the dreadful conditions as was to be expected. Park attacked down the left hand side and was moved out to the winger Roscoe who made a break and appeared to be tackled short of the line but good awareness from Roscoe allowed him to reach out and touch down on the try line. A fine conversion by Hall from wide out added to the total, 3-10. With the conditions favouring park they managed to keep Douglas in their own half for most of the half and Douglas were unable to clear the lines to any distance. From the lineout on the Douglas 22 good carries by a number of the forwards in particular Fox, Doolan P and Davies J put Douglas under pressure. It was down to Mooney to quickly get his hands on a breakdown and forcing the penalty for Park which Hall stepped up to knock over, 3-13. It was close to half time and a mistake from the kick off finding Whitt in an offside position gives Douglas an opportunity to close the gap and it is duly slotted as the final move of the game, 6-13. A scrappy and niggly half with both teams unable to have sustained position.

Douglas were now attacking with a strong wind behind them and took the opportunity to spend the early exchanges in the Park 22. Good strong defence by park managed to keep Douglas out but if this was to continue how long could Park hold out. Very time Park were able to get out of there half they were pinned back by Douglas who were using the elements well to keep park pinned down. It helped Park that Douglas hooker had to go off which severely disrupted their lineout options. It was 10 minutes before Park were able to get into the Douglas half for some sustained period of possession. Some pick and go’s worked for Park with Ashcroft making 10m when picking up straight from the breakdown. Park were disrupted by some enforced changes both at centre and prop when the Davies’s went off. Park continued to have some continued possession and a driving lineout led to the ball being recycled some decent runs again by Fox and Doolan P led to the ball coming out to fly half Roberts who saw space out on the wide right. A neat kick found winger Laing in acres of pace and he was able to collect and dive over and score, 6-18. The wind and rain picked up again making sustained play difficult for both teams and there were errors all across the field. A penalty kick allowed Douglas to get into the Park 22 and from the lineout a number of pick and go’s from the Douglas pack brought them closer and closer to the line. Park held out the initial attacks but it only seemed a matter of time before Douglas got over. This was in fact the case when eventually they forced their way over the line near to the posts making it a simple conversion, 13-18. With 5 minutes remaining Park needed to muster their skills to keep Douglas out and Mooney was prominent in driving the team forward. With the Park defence holding firm and pressure on the Douglas backs they forced the mistake and Park were awarded the scrum, winning the ball cleanly Roberts kicked to touch and the referee blew for full time.

A tough game against tough opposition in extremely challenging conditions so an excellent result ground out by the whole team. All to play for next week at home to table toppers Waterloo.